County seeks firearms ban decision

SANDPOINT — Bonner County is calling on a 1st District Court judge to settle a conflict over a prohibition of firearms at the Festival at Sandpoint to keep the dispute from boiling over into a violent confrontation during this year’s annual concert series.

Counsel for Bonner County filed a motion for summary judgment to swiftly end the dispute, which officials contend has the potential to devolve into scenario not unlike the deadly clash at a Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.

A large, armed protest is being planned if the prohibition against firearms during the Festival is allowed to stand. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of Second Amendment advocates are expected to demonstrate if the ban is not lifted, according to county officials.

“This dispute creates a highly explosive and dangerous situation ripe for a public disaster,” Amy Clemmons, the county’s counsel, said in court documents filed on Tuesday.

Filed along with the motion was declarations from Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall, Sheriff Daryl Wheeler, commission Chairman Dan McDonald, Second Amendment supporters and a retired Los Angeles Police veteran who specializes security management consulting.

Bonner County sued the city of Sandpoint last year because Idaho law forbids the infringement of Second Amendment rights on public lands. The Festival leases the city’s War Memorial Field every year for the waterfront concert series. The city contends the lease enables the Festival to draft its own security protocols. The Festival maintains that it enacted the firearms prohibition to satisfy contractual obligations with artists who perform during the event.

The county argues in its motion for summary judgment that a lease resulting in a ban violates Idaho public policy and is contrary to state legislators’ intent to prevent municipalities from creating exemptions to the right to bear arms.

Marshall said in his declaration that the county asked the city to address the violations through diplomacy, but the city was unresponsive. Marshall notes that his office and that of Wheeler’s to enforce the law and protect constitutional rights. Marshall references a woman’s arrest in Meridian for violating the state’s stay-at-home order.

“These are not academic, esoteric arguments,” Marshall said in court documents.

McDonald said in his declaration that county filed suit to resolve the dispute so sheriff’s deputies and Sandpoint Police can coordinate law enforcement response if there is a large demonstration.

“Bonner County brought this action for declaratory relief to resolve this dispute of law to enable both municipalities to carry out their law enforcement duties in the public interest and avoid civil liability related to the violations of law that will result from the city’s plan to cite and arrest protesters,” McDonald wrote.

Wheeler said the city’s position places him in an “impossible position” which prevents him from complying with his legal duty. Wheeler adds that a plan to use a private security detail will not suffice because they are not trained to handle confrontations in large public gatherings.

“It is my position that private security personnel are woefully inadequate to respond to or address an armed protest,” Wheeler said in his declaration.

Security management consultant Dave Welts agrees.

“The use of private security in lieu of law enforcement is a completely inadequate response and create further danger,” Welts said. “A ‘mob mentality’ is a large concern in this setting.”

Appended to Welts’ declaration is the 219-page independent review of the Charlottesville protests, which concluded a lack of unified law enforcement command factored into the bloodshed.

Tosh Landquist, a concealed-carry firearms instructor from Kootenai County, said he plans to protest if the ban remains in place.

“It is my firm belief that I have the legal right to bear arms at War Memorial Field during the Festival at Sandpoint, and I am going to assert that right this summer if it occurs, and any subsequent Festivals if guns are banned,” Landquist wrote.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.